Mammoth task for Lancs

LANCASHIRE face the mammoth task of scoring another 462 runs to win the County Championship title on the final day of the 2007 season. The Red Rose county, who reached 27-0 at close on day three, were set 489 to win by Surrey at the Oval.

LANCASHIRE face the mammoth task of scoring another 462 runs to win the County Championship title on the final day of the 2007 season.

The Red Rose county, who reached 27-0 at close on day three, were set 489 to win by Surrey at the Oval.

And they will have to go for the jugular, and attempt to chase down the target, because rivals Durham beat Kent by eight wickets at Canterbury to move 7.5 points clear at the top of LV Division One.

Four points for a draw will not be enough for Lancashire, who have to win the game. That also means that it doesn’t matter to Red Rose whether Sussex, the other contenders, win, lose or draw.

“All we can do is go and play as well as we have all year - even better than that,” said Glen Chapple.

“We can get the runs, but we need a serious effort from the lads. A bit ofluck needs to go our way, and we have all got to believe that it can happen.”

There were actually quite a few golfing analogies knocking around the Oval, as Durham completed their seventh win of the season to become the clubhouse leaders.

The other one was that Lancashire look to have comprehensively missed the cut.

Bad day

Again it was a bad day at the office for the visiting bowlers, as Mark Ramprakash, 130 not out, smashed his second century of the game.

The former England man is without doubt the best batsman on the county circuit, and he proved it by passing 2,000 runs for the season to finish with an average of 101.3 - for the second time in two years.

The 38-year-old notched his tenth ton of campaign in 193 balls with 16 fours included. His match aggregate of 326 is the highest to have ever been scored against Lancashire.

Oliver Newby bowled well enough to pick up 2-48, as Chapple, Sajid Mahmoodand Dominic Cork all picked up a wicket apiece.

But now Lancs have to forget about all that has gone before them in thisgame, and concentrate on believing that miracles can happen.

If they are to pull this game out of the fire, they will have to reach the highest total they have ever chased for victory. The 1910 side once chased 404 to beat Hampshire at Southampton.

Captain Mark Chilton and Paul Horton made a solid start to the innings - but bad light halted play six overs early. 25 year-old Horton reached 1,000 Championship runs for the season.

“It’s plain for all to see now. We need to score another 460 to win the Championship, and there is no other way of looking at it,” added Chapple.